During hair dressing and preparation activities, a variety of hair dressing implements are employed for the purpose of maintaining the style and appearance of a person's hair. It is often desired to group strands of hair together so as to achieve a particular style. For example, pony tails are often quite popular, not only for the ease in which it may be cared for, but also for the comfort that it affords in keeping the hair away from the neck in hot weather. There are various other hair styles in which several strands of hair join together for the purpose of fashion.
Heretofore, numerous devices have been developed for use in connection with the creation and maintenance of various hair styles. One of the most commonly known of such prior devices is referred to as a barrette. In their most basic sense, barrettes are typically formed of two opposed rib-like members hinged for relative movement therebetween at a first juncture of two ends thereof and releasably fastenable at the juncture of the other two ends. One or both of the rib-like members may be toothed to better retain the hair between the members and laterally position the barrette with respect to the hair. While this prior art structure has proven satisfactory in use with some hair styles, certain styling procedures are difficult, if not impossible, to accomplish with such a device.
In addition to barrettes, a number of other devices are described in patents which have issued on various types of hair retaining devices and hair styling devices. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,998,233, issued Dec. 21, 1976 to Dorr, describes a barrette-type structure which is adapted to rotate 360 degrees at a joined end thereof. U.S. Pat. Nos. 573,887; 673,098; 918,203; 1,596,737; 2,159,709; 2,718,894; 5,174,312; 5,284,167; and 5,335,680 disclose various hairstyling devices or hair ornaments which are pivotally joined at a first end and releaseably interconnected at a second end. Various mechanisms are disclosed throughout the prior art, including those discussed immediately above, for releasably securing hair styling devices in a closed condition.
While prior known hair styling devices have proven to be relatively commercially successful, none are without associated drawbacks or inherent limitations. For example, many of the known prior devices are subject to inadvertent opening. This problem is particularly prevalent when it is necessary to grasp and secure large quantities of hair to create such hair styles as a ponytail. Additionally, most prior devices are required to be positioned in the hair such that they are visible during use. Further, prior devices are limited in application and are generally not suitable for preparing complex hair styles such as a French twist hair style.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a different type of hair styling apparatus which is novel both in its structure and its use which overcomes the disadvantages associated with the prior art.
A related object of the present invention is to provide a hair styling apparatus that is capable of securely retaining large amounts of hair, but which is not subjected to inadvertent opening.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a hair styling apparatus which can be used to create a French twist hair style that has a compact and simple construction with a minimal number of parts.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a hair styling apparatus including two substantially identical parts constructed from an elastically deformable injection molded plastic.